The Luck Of The Irish Mystery Dinner For The Elite Fleet!
As I was looking at several of my previous St. Patrick’s Day posts…I came across this one from 8 years ago. I have mentioned that the Captain and I had a church Ministry for the over 50’s group. (before I got sick)…and I thought I would re-share it with you. One thing I noticed was how different this room looks today. It has been updated, as has the kitchen. But it served the purpose. Please ignore the quickly taken photos with my IPhone.
Once a month the Captain and I host a themed dinner for our church group and we provide the main dish, decor and all the table settings and entertainment.
This month we had a St. Patrick’s Day theme called “The Luck Of The Irish Mystery Dinner For The Elite Fleet!”
Yes, we named our group the Elite Fleet! We are all over 50 years old. This group sometimes gets lost in the shuffle of church functions just for them,…….. sooooooo for the past year we have hosted picnics, dinners and outings.
I LOVE doing it and the rewards are so great as people come up to us and thank us profusely for this time out during their busy or perhaps not so busy week.
Some have said it is their highlight of the month.
That is very satisfying and make all the effort we put into it, entirely worth it.
We had at least 70 people signed up at this month’s event, so I made 13 corned beef briskets with little red potatoes and cabbage.
Others brought the pre-determined menu of Baked Beans, Deviled eggs, Glazed Carrots, Fruit Salads, Dinner Rolls and desserts.
As you can see, there were a variety of green desserts.
So much good food and such a good time.
We also had a St. Patrick’s 3 act skit, which involved 10 suspects and a missing pot of gold from the end of the rainbow.
The suspects had no idea who had taken the gold and the script proved to be hilarious because they had to read the script parts for the first time as I handed them out.
I gave them props to describe who and what their jobs were.
For example, we had a cobbler and his wife, a leprechaun and his wife, a King and his wife, two Irish lads, one a blacksmith and the other a fiddler/shepherd. The two Irish lasses were a seamstress and a milk maid.
Several of the suspects fumbled their lines (which was the intent since they had not seen their script before) and several ad-libbed and used accents.
It was hilarious and all in good fun.
Some said it was the most they had laughed in some time.
We gave everyone cribbage notes to jot down their thoughts on who the “thief” might be.
And of course we gave a prize for the correct answer
… and a prize for the best costume. The two above were the finalists and the prize went to the red bearded leprechaun.
Our Pastor is such a good sport, the prop for him was a small Fedora and he went along with it. His beautiful wife Cindi, in the yellow sweater, also played a part in the skit.
I received lots of compliments on the corned beef and I have a good recipe here that has a brown sugar glaze, if you would care to check it out.
However, Since I had so many briskets to make, I used this simple recipe below.
Tip: place new potatoes and onions in the bottom of the crock pot and place the brisket on top of them. Your veggies will not get mushy this way.
Recipe: One corned beef brisket, 4 cups of water, 6 ounces of beer and the spice packet from the corned beef package. Put it in a crock pot for 8 hours on high.
If adding cabbage, add one head of quartered cabbage in and around the brisket and cook in the crock pot about one more hour for a total of 9 hours. (I used 3 large roasters)
Yummy and really moist.
Almost everyone wore green which was such fun.
This was a good opportunity to invite one of our neighbors who recently lost a loved one.
Another of our Pastor’s was kind enough to give us a little history on St. Patrick, as well as a short devotional.
All in all, it was really great food and fun and the Captain and I are resting up to do it all over again next month. That one will be for Easter.
Hugs to all and have a great and blessed day.
Joshua 1:9. “Have not I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
What a sweet flashback of good ministry, Kari.
Thanks Rita, it was a lot of work, but so worth it…at the time. As I have said, I could not do it today as I would be on my feet all day and evening…and I only have energy in spurts these days. Looking forward to Tuesday. AND so happy that the Mountaineers and the Jayhawks each got byes for the start of the tourny…there for a while I wasn’t so sure what would happen. LOL Have a great week-end.
Oh my, it sounded like so much fun. A lot of work, but I’m sure it was worth it. This morning I tried to get into your blog, but I couldn’t get in. I’m glad I tried again because it was great to read about all the fun, and I’m going to use your recipe for the brisket. Smile!
Hugs,
Sandy
So glad you were able to get into the blog…not sure what is happening out there in cyber space. LOL The brisket is delish…thanks for stopping by my friend. Have a great week.
Kari, what a fabulous job you and the Captain did with the decor, food, and fun. That is a huge amount of work and I know it meant so much to your over 50 crowd! How wonderful that folks dressed in green! Thank you for sharing, I don’t remember seeing this fun party💚☘️💚 Blessings, my friend!
Pam, I had to jog my own memory since it was 8 years ago..🥹 Does that mean we are getting old? LOL Today at church, several commented on that post…especially the Pastor, cuz he said…”Look at how fat I was”🥰 (At least he didn’t go the other way. Have a Blessed week. Hugs always
Oh my goodness, Kari, what a huge undertaking the monthly themed parties must’ve been for you and your Captain. Thank you for reminiscing and sharing the St. Paddy’s Day party with us and telling us how you fixed the corned beef meal. Your weekly Bible study is still work for you, but I know you enjoy it and it’s much smaller.
Happy weekend to you and your Captain!
You are right Kitty…a much smaller group in my own home is so much easier to manage. I just ordered my corned beef brisket for this upcoming St. Patrick’s dinner which will also be smaller…much smaller. LOL. Do you make a brisket or will your family entertain you?
Kari, What a huge undertaking and labor of love to have provided monthly meals, decorated, and to have come up with activities for your church members. Love how everyone got into wearing of the green but wondered how the leprechaun winner ate his dinner. Our church has Seniors on Sundays with a meal and speaker for us older folks. I’m doing the centerpieces for this month with a St. Patrick’s Day theme.
Today is Senior Day at Allen Fieldhouse. Hope the starting seniors have some shining moments.
Oh yes, Jan…I hope we can beat that purple team…who will probably play out of their gourd as they have nothing to lose or gain. They will most likely not be invited to the dance…I always hate to look at the percentages the oddsmakers give us on winning…especially when it is a 90% or better because that is when we play our worst. Today it is 90.8% with K-State at 9.2% chance of winning. Rock Chalk Jayhawk…now is the time for the Seniors to show their stuff.
Those monthly themed dinners were a lot of work and I knew I would not be able to do them justice after my sickness…so the Captain and I backed away. I knew I still needed to have a ministry, so after much prayer, I decided to have the weekly Bible Study for a small intimate group of ladies (8-ish) where I could sit at a table and be close to my bathroom. 😉
I know where you and I will be at 2P.M. Eastern time today…but I am also watching any of the Big 12 teams play…the final games of the season in prep for the two tournaments.
How fun is this! You all do a wonderful job of bringing people together with a fun event and it’s so nice there is something at your church for older parishoners. (The three times I’ve tried to spell that, spell check says it’s wrong!). I love how everyone got into the spirit with themeatically decorated food and outfits! The food sounds terrific too. Well done!
Thanks Jeanie for stopping by and commenting …it was certainly ‘fun’ reminiscing (I had the same problem with spell check on THAT word 🥹) Anyway, I had to laugh because I remember using those ‘old’ white, Westinghouse, electric domed roasters that many of us had in our early days, say the 1960’s?… 😂 I still have my 3 stashed in the garage and when I have large family dinners to make, I drag them out and they still work. Have a great week-end!
Bless you and your husband for this ministry. What fun but a lot of work.
You know Nancy, I only think of it as “work” the day after….teehehehe! Go figure! The rest of the month, I love the planning and actually look forward to it.
Thank you Nancy for stopping by and have a great day.
Omg that is absolutely fabulous Kari. So much work but how lovely to read how much fun everyone had.
Well done you.
Love and hugs from across the pond xx
Thanks Ross…it was such fun. One of the single ladies (Tara Fitzgerald) misread her lines to say (something like) she liked the way Malone MacSweeney fiddles with her when out in the pasture with his flock of sheep …. when she should have said she liked the way he calmed the sheep with his fiddle playing. We were laughing hysterically. And when it was Malone’s turn to speak, he leaned towards Tara and ad libbed he was glad she enjoyed the fiddling….and then he read his next lines. More laughter.
I had downloaded the mystery play from on-line and the instructions were do not read ahead of time, so I didn’t, nor did the ten “suspects” which made it even more fun.
Laughter is the best medicine isn’t it?
Hugs from this side of the pond.